1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a low power network. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for configuring a low power network.
2. Description of the Related Art
As wireless communication technology is developed, communication devices are miniaturized, and manufacturing costs are reduced, various technologies have emerged including Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) technology, Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) technology, wireless sensor network technology, and Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN) technology. As a social interest for progressing to a society with ubiquitous communications increases and a study thereof continues, the above-mentioned wireless communication technologies are expected to play an important role. In particular, the WBAN has appeared together with an attempt for combining medical technology with Information Technology (IT) for healthcare, remote medical services, diagnostics, medical treatments, etc. An interest and a demand for the combination of IT with medical technology is a driving force for various standardizations by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.15.6 Body Area Network (BAN) Task Group.
Since it is not easy to recharge or replace a battery of a WBAN apparatus transplanted inside a human body, there is a need for a technology that reduces power consumption and thereby extends the operational life of the WBAN apparatus. In a WBAN standard, a low power physical layer technology for communication such as modulation/demodulation methods and a low power Media Access Control (MAC) layer technology for network control are being studied.
Meanwhile, to access a network, the WBAN apparatus decodes all packets inside a network and retrieves a broadcast frame. However, to retrieve the broadcast frame, the WBAN apparatus demodulates two times more data in a superframe than the amount of data corresponding to the broadcast frame. After that, the WBAN apparatus requests a network master to allocate a dedicated frame via the retrieved broadcast frame.
For example, for accessing a network, in the case where the number of frames inside one superframe is 256, the WBAN apparatus demodulates 512 frames at a maximum and determines information to ascertain whether a frame is a broadcast frame and whether a master node may be requested to allocate a frame. Here, since the WBAN apparatus should demodulate all frames inside a superframe to detect a broadcast frame, a lot of power is consumed.
Therefore, a need exists for a method and an apparatus for reducing power consumption when configuring a low power network.